With sweat dripping onto their stained and soaked jerseys, the five Port Neches-Groves offensive linemen - dirty and worn from practice - stood near midfield on Tuesday at Indian Stadium.

"These are the offensive linemen - they don't shower," said PN-G offensive line coach Joe Dale Cary, joking about some of football's biggest players.

Four days earlier, those five guys were in the midst of a constant mental game. The opponent, West Orange-Stark, was continuously repositioning its defensive players during the moments leading to the start of each play.

Linebackers inched

close to the line of scrimmage on some plays and hovered a few yards back on others. PN-G's linemen had but a few seconds to determine who to block as they settled into their stances.

"There were some fronts we weren't used to, but we still picked it up on the fly," right guard Chris Mangini said.

On the fly - offensive linemen don't have the luxury of thinking any other way.

Once the offensive play has been called and linemen leave the huddle, what they see at the line of scrimmage is ever-changing. Defenses often switch defensive formations several times during a game. Offensive linemen have to quickly decide what to do next.

The center, who is junior Allan Soriano for PN-G, calls out the defense the opponent is running when he gets to the line of scrimmage.

The ball is generally snapped within four seconds of that moment. During those seconds, all five offensive linemen quickly call out who they will block.

Defenses often shift at the last possible second in an attempt to confuse the offensive line or draw a false start penalty by making an offensive player move before the ball has been snapped. WO-S, which beat PN-G 34-13, did plenty of that last week.

"West Orange-Stark definitely did something every play that would throw us off or try to confuse us," PN-G coach Brandon Faircloth said.

"It's a big reaction position," he added. "The guy I thought I was going to block, maybe he has moved somewhere else. It's a lot of reaction, a lot of instinct. It takes a group of five guys to play together."

That's meant learning on the go for several local offensive lines. Port Arthur Memorial played three sophomores last Saturday against Ozen. And then there's Central with five new starters. Senior center Ricky Mojica, who splits time with junior Zack Griffin, played center during a couple games last year for Central. But no other offensive lineman had previous varsity experience.

"There are some days when it's hard to get it right," Central's junior right guard Brandon Ellis said. "We're constantly talking and calling out where the defensive line is lined up and where the linebacker or safety is coming down. We're constantly thinking and talking the whole time."

Against Silsbee on Aug. 31, PN-G left tackle Justin Reasons looked up on one play and saw no defender nearby. The Indians were running their hurry-up offense, and opposing players were still setting up their defense. Reasons eventually blocked a player in the side.

"We just had to guess and go to the closest defender," Reasons said.

Legacy coach Byron Sanford said centers, who are in the middle of the offensive line, often don't have a defender lined up directly in front of them, especially when facing a 4-3 defensive front with four defensive linemen and three linebackers. In those scenarios, Sanford said the center often holds his position in a zone, blocks the play-side defensive tackle or puts a block on the middle linebacker.

"Sometimes the best thing to do is just base block and go get them," Sanford said. "Sometimes that gives defenses problems, just going straight at them."

But then there's the other side of offensive linemen - the passive-aggressive side.

Unlike on run plays, where offensive linemen can push defenders several yards beyond the line of scrimmage, linemen can't cross the line of scrimmage on pass plays. If they cross the line before a pass it throw, that's a penalty.

On pass plays, linemen still often push forward toward the defender. But sometimes it's a matter of waiting. Reasons said the center usually takes a half-step backward while the tackles, who are on the edges of the offensive line, take two full steps back and await a pass rusher.

"We set back, and you just stay on him," Mangini said. "It's all about feet. You have to stay in front of him."

By then, the hard part - knowing who "him" is - has finally been settled.